Airbnb’s Game Changing Story – Webtekno

today especially in foreign travels Airbnb service, which people use with peace of mind, provides people with the comfort of home, unlike a hotel. As the calendar turns to 2007, one of the most inspiring stories is born.

As much as people love to travel, they also love to feel at home in different places. Born with this very thought AirbnbTwo friends named Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, who started with the idea of ​​sharing their apartment in San Francisco, California, USA, continued today by turning it into a giant platform that brings together millions of homeowners and guests.

On September 22, 2007, Joe Gebbia, living in San Francisco, approached his roommate Brian Chesky, who was struggling with financial difficulties, with an interesting suggestion.

At a time when rental prices were skyrocketing, Gebbia thought of an opportunity to increase the limited budget they had. What they experienced renting out empty rooms in an apartment He presented the idea to his friend that it would be a good opportunity to both generate income and offer travelers a more personal accommodation experience.

Together, they thought that a more affordable and comfortable accommodation service than hotels, which started based on the “bed and breakfast” concept, would be very popular.

It promised an ideal accommodation experience with not only a bed but also a nice breakfast.

They started by purchasing three air mattresses and brought the lofts together to create a separate apartment for the guests. He set out on his adventures with the dream of an inflatable bed and breakfast. airbedandbreakfast.com They continued with a website called.

With a few clicks, people could get this special accommodation experience for just 80 dollars. Three guests, who had the opportunity to stay among the people attending a conference, had a wonderful accommodation adventure.

It was quickly realized that AirBed & Breakfast had great potential.

Former roommates on this exciting journey They decided to include Nathan Blecharczyk. After a preparation period of approximately 6 months, this trio decided to officially introduce AirBed & Breakfast. However, the beginning was not so bright. The site had only received two reservations, and one was from a member of the group. to Chesky belonged.

Although the first steps are small, this initiative will turn into a giant platform around the world. Airbnb basics He had thrown it.

A few months later, it was decided to meet with investors to move things forward.

They met but could not get any results. During the periods when the Democratic National Congress will take place, They put forward the site they developed because they thought there would be a shortage of accommodation in the region. It happened as they thought, the site broke the booking record during this event.

Although these reservations made significant progress for them, the money they took from the bank to develop the site They were unable to pay their $20,000 loan. This situation pushed the three friends to develop another investment idea. They decided to make a slightly different move, building on the famous Cheerios and Cap’n Crunch brands.

In the excitement of the Democratic National Convention, they decided to design cereal boxes and identify them with presidential candidates. into a box Obama’sMcCain’s images and fake logos were printed on the other box.

It was stated that only 1,000 of these boxes were produced, and on the back of each box there was a number identifying the box and information about the AirBed & Breakfast website.

This, guerilla marketing strategy It was a clever application and it worked miraculously. During the congress, they sold all of these boxes for $40, generating an unexpected income of $30,000.

This unexpected success provides them with significant resources that they will use to grow their venture and further develop Airbnb. became a source of financing. So, with a creative idea born from a cereal box and a little guerrilla marketing, Airbnb’s roots grew deeper.

When debts are paid The trio had nothing left to finance. After the conference, reservations stopped and they went back to normal again. Blecharczyk, who joined the team later, returned to his old job – for a short time – thinking that things would not work out.

In November 2008, they met with Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel.

Siebel, a support program for the duo He mentioned Y Combinator, This was a move that would bring back Blecharczyk, who had left them. During this period, they continued negotiations with investors who could provide financing. They also had the opportunity to meet Fred Wilson, the founder of Union Square Ventures, one of the technology industry’s leading venture capital firms.

Tumblr, Twitter, Soundcloud and Stripe Wilson, a name that has invested in giant names such as, did not find the inflatable bed-based proposal very attractive and turned the duo down. Wilson, who later described this decision as a “big mistake”, could not fully see Airbnb’s potential at first.

Airbnb, which successfully completed the Y Combinator program in March 2009, brought a new direction to its journey by making two important changes in this process.

First, the name They changed it from AirBed & Breakfast to what we know as Airbnb.. This change was due to the mixed reception of the air mattress concept. Some people loved it, some hated it. Secondly, the room rental system was no longer just about shared rooms. Airbnb began offering private spaces and included entire homes and apartments in their rentals.

The following year, the company reached a major milestone: Venture capital firms From Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners He received a large investment fund of $7.2 million. At this point, Airbnb had booked nearly 700,000 stays since its 2008 launch and was gaining increasing traction. Airbnb increased its success rate by exceeding the million booking threshold in February 2011.

2011 was a period when Airbnb began to establish a closer relationship with investors and notable names.

Actor Ashton Kutcherannounced that it will invest in Airbnb through A-Grade Ventures, the venture capital company it founded. He also joined Airbnb’s advisory board. Two months later, a second financing was provided under the leadership of Andreessen Horowitz, a technology-focused capital company that invests in companies such as Instagram and Skype, and Airbnb raised $112 million from this round.

During this period, Airbnb focused on international growth. Offering a sketch service and accelerating Airbnb’s entry into the European market in May 2011 Bought Accoleo. The next year, it opened an international office and began operating in Paris, Milan, Barcelona, ​​Copenhagen, Moscow and Sao Paulo.

rival in 2012 crash padder has gone on a spree to create an arm focused on experiences, of sorts, by purchasing city guide app NabeWise. Additionally, Airbnb started to ensure that homes are cleaner by collaborating with cleaning companies. This was an important criterion that would multiply their demands.

In 2014, Airbnb decided to change the company’s identity and motto by announcing a rebranding project.

Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, embarked on a comprehensive design change to simplify the website and app. In addition, by creating Airbnb’s new logo, we adopted the company’s new motto. “belonging” They tried to reflect the concept. The design, which they called Bélo, used a combination of the hand-drawn letter A, a heart and a location pin.

During this logo change period Airbnb’s value is $13 billion had reached. However, the company has encountered situations where short-term rentals are strictly regulated or banned altogether in some cities.

In 2015, the company began collecting hotel taxes and paying those revenues to cities in an effort to increase its revenue. Everyone who has stayed at Airbnb properties in Amsterdam, San Jose, Chicago, Washington and Paris a period in which taxes must be paid That’s how it started.

As a result of the vote held in San Francisco in 2015, it was decided to impose restrictions on rental activities in the city.

Airbnb to support city operations $12 million tax He announced that he had paid. However, he stated that this effort was not received positively. San Francisco pioneered a regulation banning short-term rentals by property owners who do not live in the same house, a regulation called the Airbnb law. The law came into force in 2018.

Focusing on the Chinese market outside Europe, Airbnb He introduced the Chinese brand Aibiying in 2017. The company increased its investment in China, tripling its local workforce. However, competition in China was intense; Airbnb’s Chinese equivalent, Tujia, has more than 300,000 properties, while Airbnb’s portfolio remains limited at 80,000.

This initiative, which was started by two friends in debt with three inflatable beds, has turned into a tremendous success story and today Airbnb’s value is approximately $73 billion. We see that the platform operates in more than 190 countries and more than 34 thousand cities. With more than 2 million listings and more than 40 million users, Airbnb has become a global hospitality giant.